1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a microwave oven, and more particularly, to a microwave oven having a door which is semi-circularly projected forward and a bottom plate which is projected forward from a cooking chamber to correspond to the shape of the door, thus enabling a user to observe the cooking chamber from various locations and allowing food to be easily placed and removed from the cooking chamber.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a microwave oven is an appliance that cooks or heats food laid in a cooking chamber using microwaves that are generated by a magnetron disposed in a machine room. The microwave oven cooks or heats the food using frictional heat produced between moisture molecules of the food, and generated by irradiating the microwaves into the cooking chamber. That is, the microwaves repeatedly change the molecular arrangement of moisture contained in the food to cook the food.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a conventional microwave oven with its door 8 opened. As shown in FIG. 1, the microwave oven comprises a housing 1 having a machine room 2 and a cooking chamber 3 which are partitioned from each other in the interior of the housing 1. A magnetron 4 which generates microwaves, and a blower fan 5 which cools the magnetron 4 and discharges moisture and odor generated from food to the outside of the microwave oven are mounted in the machine room 2. The blower fan 5 discharges the moisture and odor by circulating air through the cooking chamber 3.
The cooking chamber 3 is constructed in a form of a box with its front opened. The cooking chamber 3 has a rectangular bottom 3a, a front end of which is laid on the same plane as a front of the cooking chamber 3. A turntable 6 which allows food to be laid thereon, and a rotation guide (not shown) which rotatably supports the turntable 6 are mounted on the rectangular bottom 3a. The turntable 6 is rotated at a relatively low speed while being coupled to a motor (not shown) disposed under the cooking chamber 3.
The door 8 is rotatably hinged to one side of the housing 1 in front of the cooking chamber 3 so as to selectively open and close the cooking chamber 3. The door 8 is constructed in a form of a rectangle. A see-through member 9 having a plurality of see-through holes is fitted into a center portion of the door 8 to allow a user to see through the door 8. The door 8 including the see-through member 9 has planar front and back surfaces. Accordingly, where the door 8 is tightly closed, the planar back surface of the door 8 comes into close contact with the front of the cooking chamber 3, and the front of the door 8 constitutes a plane.
Where the microwave oven operates, the microwaves generated by the magnetron 4 are irradiated into the cooking chamber 3, and simultaneously, the turntable 6 is rotated at a relatively low speed. Accordingly, the food laid on the turntable 6 is cooked by the irradiated microwaves.
However, since the conventional microwave oven having the construction as described above is shaped in a form of a hexahedron, and the see-through member 9 formed to allow a user to see through the door 8 constitutes a plane along with the frame of the door 8, the user has to observe the interior of the cooking chamber 3 with his eyes being level with the see-through member, that is, his body being somewhat bent toward the see-through member 9 to ascertain a cooking status of the food.
Additionally, in the conventional microwave oven, the bottom plate 3a of the cooking chamber is rectangularly shaped, and a front end of the bottom plate and a front of the cooking chamber 3 are situated on the same plane, so the food has to be positioned deep within the cooking chamber 3. Accordingly, it is difficult to place and remove the food from the cooking chamber 3.
In particular, a cooking container containing the food is very hot after a cooking operation, so it is difficult to remove the cooked food from the cooking chamber 3 of the conventional microwave oven.
Furthermore, the bottom plate 3a of the cooking chamber 3 is integrated with a top and sidewalls of the cooking chamber 3. Therefore it is inconvenient and difficult to install a heater to perform a grill cooking. That is, an additional heater structure is required to be installed on or under the bottom plate 3a of the cooking chamber 3 to perform the grill cooking. However, the bottom plate 3a of the conventional microwave oven is integrated with the cooking chamber 3, and accordingly, the installation of the heater structure is very difficult and complicated.